Residents of Gozaki ward in Kafur Local Government Area of Katsina State are still in shock following the weekend hailstorm recorded in the community for two days.

Although no life was lost during the hailstorm, there are fears that the hailstones may affect the growth of crops in the community.

The farmers worried that crops such as maize, millet, rice, soya beans, and pepper grown in the community might be destroyed because of the hailstones.

The Kafur Local Government Area Chairman, Alhaji Garba Kanya; the district head of Kafur, Alhaji Abdulrahman Rabe, and top council officials had already visited the affected area and the farmlands.

While sympathising with the affected farmers and the Gozaki Community over the development, the council chairman urged them to take the matter in good faith.

The chairman, who noted that farming is the primary occupation of the community, assured them that the Local Council would forward a report of the incident to the State Emergency Management Agency for possible intervention.

Rabe, in his remarks, expressed concern over the level of destruction and solicited the government’s assistance for those whose farmlands were affected.

The district head assured that the affected farmers would not be abandoned.

France saw record temperatures for September hit the country, notably the south west, amid a heatwave drifting up from Morocco, the Meteo-France weather service said.

The thermometer hit 39.1 degrees Celsius (102.4 degrees Fahrenheit) at Mont-de-Marsan in the southwestern Landes department and 39C at nearby Dax.

Regional capital Bordeaux saw 37.5C — topping a previous September high of 37C in 1987 — while Tarbes further south in the Pyrenees saw 37.2C, more than a degree up on the 35.8C seen in 1964.

Neighbouring Pau managed to beat that with a baking 38.9C, easily surpassing the 36.3C it had seen in 1970.

Even some 600 kilometres (370 miles) further north, in Nantes, temperatures were a barely less scorching 35.1C, unheard of for the area in September.

France saw three heatwaves between June and August, the result of an air depression in the Atlantic Ocean as scientists lined up to blame the phenomenon at least partly on climate change.

This summer was France’s second-hottest on record with average temperatures 2.3C above the norm, a slew of large-scale wildfires which ravaged much of the southwest and widespread drought as well as several severe storms.

Meteo-France added that some areas, including the lower Rhone valley, would likely see heavy rain and intermittent violent storms.

Strolling along the ancient ruins of Hatra in Iraq’s north, dozens of visitors admired the site, where local initiatives seek to turn over a new leaf after a brief but brutal Daesh rule.

Designated an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO, Hatra dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC.

It is a two-hour drive from Mosul, the former “capital” proclaimed by Daesh, which was recaptured in 2017 by Iraqi forces and an international coalition that backed them.

A tour of the site, the first of its kind organized by a private museum in Mosul, aimed to boost tourism in the area.

Some 40 visitors, most of them Iraqis, were allowed to walk around the more than 2,000-year-old archaeological site in the golden hour of twilight.

The tourists took selfies in front of impressive colonnades and inspected the reliefs vandalized by Daesh jihadists.

“It has great history” allowing a peek into an ancient civilization, said Luna Batota, a 33-year-old on tour with her Belgian husband.

“A lot of history but at the same time a lot of unfortunate events took place here with Daesh,” she said.

Batota works for a pharmaceutical company in Belgium, where she has lived since the age of nine.

Twenty-four years later, this is the first time she has returned to her homeland.

Visiting Hatra stirred up “mixed feelings” for her, she said. “You see bullet holes, you see many empty bullets.”

An important religious and trading center under the Parthian empire, Hatra had imposing fortifications and magnificent temples, blending Greek and Roman architectural styles with oriental decorative elements.

In 2015, Daesh released a video showing its militants destroying a series of reliefs, firing at them and hacking away at a statue with a pickaxe.

In February, the authorities unveiled three restorations at the site: A Roman-style sculpture of a life-size figure and reliefs on the side of the great temple.

Five years after the defeat of Daesh, Mosul and its surroundings have regained a sense of normalcy, even as rehabilitation efforts suffer setbacks and many areas still bear the scars of the fight against the militants.

The tour of Hatra was organized by the Mosul Heritage House, a private museum inaugurated in June.

But even before it, the site drew individual visitors, according to one of the organizers, Fares Abdel Sattar, a 60-year-old engineer.

This new initiative seeks to “showcase the heritage and identity” of Mosul and its broader Nineveh province, he said.

After its rise to power in 2014 and the conquest of swathes of Iraq and Syria, Daesh faced counteroffensives in both countries. Iraqi forces finally claimed victory in late 2017.

As Iraq gradually opens up to foreign tourism, dozens of visitors — particularly from the West — are now exploring the country, with some even venturing into Mosul.

The Hatra group are pioneers, visiting at a time when the US, British and other governments are warning their citizens against travel to Iraq, citing the risks of terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict and civil unrest.

The tourism sector also suffered a setback with the case of British pensioner James Fitton, who was detained and condemned to 15 years in jail over pottery shards he picked at an archaeological site, before a court in July overturned the sentence and he flew back home.

Challenges remain and tourist infrastructure is still basic in Iraq, a country rich in oil but ravaged by decades of fighting.

“Mosul isn’t only war, Daesh, terrorism,” said Beriar Bahaa Al-Din, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Exeter in Britain, on the Hatra visit.

“Mosul is a civilization, heritage, culture,” he added. “This impressive site should be full of tourists from across the globe.”

Setting out plans to help with soaring energy bills, new Prime Minister Liz Truss confirmed she will reverse the ban on fracking in the UK.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock.

It was halted in the UK in 2019 amid opposition from green groups and local concerns over earth tremors, but there had been calls to rethink its use, given the soaring cost of energy.

What Is Fracking?

Fracking involves drilling into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals at a rock layer in order to release the gas inside.

The wells can be drilled vertically or horizontally in order to release the gas. The term fracking refers to how the rock is fractured apart by the high-pressure mixture.

Why Is It Controversial?

The injection of fluid at high pressure into the rock can cause earth tremors – small movements in the earth’s surface. More than 120 tremors were recorded during drilling at Cuadrilla’s New Preston Road site.

Seismic events of this scale are considered minor and are rarely felt by people – but are a concern to local residents.

Shale gas is also a fossil fuel, and campaigners say the resumption of fracking risks distracting energy firms and governments from investing in renewable and green sources of energy.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said doubling down on fossil fuels is a “ludicrous” answer to the energy crisis, given the threat that climate change poses to the planet and future generations.

As part of her package of measures Liz Truss has also ordered a review of the UK’s plans to reduce its emissions to zero by 2050. She said this must be delivered in a way that is “pro-business and pro-growth”.

An anti-fracking protester writes messages on a wall in Lancashire

Fracking also uses huge amounts of water, which must be transported to the site at significant environmental cost.

What Happens Next?

Setting out plans to help households and businesses with soaring energy bills, Liz Truss confirmed she would allow fracking to resume.

She said developers will be able to seek planning permission “where there is local support”, which it’s hoped “could get gas flowing in as soon as six months”.

Previous fracking by Cuadrilla in Cumbria was controversial with local communities. In 2018, before the ban came into affect test drilling faced many delays from protests, including one which lasted almost 100 hours.

In the face of opposition, and concerns from the Oil and Gas Authority, fracking was halted in the UK in 2019.

But in April 2022, following the Russia invasion of Ukraine and rising energy bills, the government said “all options” were on the table to help boost the UK’s domestic energy supply.

Then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng asked the British Geological Survey (BGS) to consider any changes to the science around the controversial practice.

When the government announced that fracking could resume, it initially announced it would publish the BGS report, which it said “suggests more drilling is required to establish data on shale resources and seismic impacts”. However, the report has not yet been published.

The Scottish and Welsh governments continue oppose fracking, and say they will not use their powers to grant drilling licences.

Fracking for shale gas in the UK has only taken place on a small scale, and faced several public and legal challenges.

It was indefinitely suspended after an inconclusive report by the Oil and Gas Authority into earth tremors.

Exploration during that period identified large swathes of shale gas across the UK, particularly in northern England.